Principles for Digital Library Development

Building a digital library is expensive and resource-intensive. Before embarking on such a venture, it is important to consider some basic principles underlying the design, implementation, and maintenance of any digital library. These principles apply not only to conversion projects in which analog objects are converted to digital form, but to digital libraries in which the objects have always been in digital form ("born digitally") and to "mixed" digital libraries in which the objects may be of both types. The principles are, in some sense, self evident, yet it is easy to lose sight of them when under pressure to build a system, despite limited resources and time.